Swan Wing
by Tiger Lily21
Summary: A retelling of "The Six Swans". Takes place after the story and includes what happened to the youngest brother.
1. Chapter 1

_**Swan Wing**_

_**by: Tiger Lily21**_

_**A/N: All right, so here's a story for you. It's not Ariella or The Crystal Rose, but it jumped into my head about a week ago and I couldn't help but write it down. I've split it into chapters, but all together it's at least 30 pages long. It's based on "The Six Swans". I realized after I got about halfway into it that there are at least three novels out there about what happened to the brother who got the incomplete shirt in that story, but I couldn't just stop. I'd told people I was writing this, and I wanted to finish. It's not very good at all, I don't think. The characters aren't developed and honestly about two-thirds of it is backstory, but I figured I'd share it anyways. I really like Nita. I may have to find another place to stick her someday. **_

_**Anyways, here's the first chapter. The rest is going up tonight. I don't feel like staggering it out. I hope you like it.

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_**Chapter 1: The Story Begins**_

The man came into town late one night. He was dressed in the fine clothes of a nobleman with an overlarge cloak over all of it. His hair was long and scraggly and hung limply around his face. He walked slowly, and his dark eyes roved over the shops and houses along the street. At last he came to a small, blue-gray house with a sign over the door. The man walked up to the door. Cautiously, he brought one hand out from under his cloak and knocked.

A young woman opened the door. She wore a white nightgown. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into a long braid. She stared at the stranger for a moment in puzzlement, and then smiled. "Hello, sir. My name is Nita Elwyn. What can I do for you?"

The man pulled his arm back quickly and hid it under his cloak. "I'm sorry to come so late," he said. "I understand you're a healer, Miss Elwyn. I need some help. I have…an injury."

Nita looked him up and down, and then smiled again. "I will do all I can to help you, sir," she said. "Please, come inside and take off your cloak. I'll try to help you."

The man's face twitched strangely for a moment, but then he nodded. "Very well."

Nita walked back into the house. Her guest followed her. Nita closed the door behind them. The stranger looked around the room, but did not remove his cloak. They appeared to have entered into a sort of sitting room. It was plain but simple, with a pair of chairs by the fireplace and a low table by one wall. A doorway led into what the stranger assumed was a kitchen, based on the corner of the stove he could see.

Nita sat down in one of the chairs by the fire. "Please, take off your cloak and join me over here," she said. "I can't get a look at your injury if you're covering it up."

The stranger remained where he was. "I believe it will be easier for you to tend my injury if you know my story first," he said. "It is rather bizarre, but you must believe me. Until I finish, I would rather keep the cloak on."

"Very well," said Nita, a hint of annoyance in her voice. She stood up. "At least come and sit down. Would you like some tea?"

"That would be lovely," said the stranger, walking over and seating himself in the chair across from the one she'd vacated. "Thank you."

Nita walked to the doorway of the kitchen and paused. "You're welcome," she said. "I'm going to go put the kettle on. Why don't you start that story?"

"As you wish," said the stranger. As Nita walked into the kitchen, he began.

"My name is Benjamin Morrow. I was once a prince, the seventh son of King Daniel of Veldony."

"King _Daniel_?" repeated Nita from the kitchen. "I thought the king of Veldony was named Victor. That was what we heard last time news of Veldony came through."

Morrow laughed slightly. "Victor is the king now. He's my oldest brother. Our father was King Daniel. He was a good man, but looking back at him I can see that he was foolish. Our mother died when I was only a child. Father expressed his grief by alternatively doting on us and ignoring us completely. He would give us fabulous presents and then refuse to let us leave the nursery for a month. My brothers and my sister and I all missed our mother, though I had barely known her, and we missed our father too. I was too young to remember, but at one time he had been a very good father—always playing with my older siblings and laughing with them and our mother. After she died…he just wasn't the same.

"It was my sister who held us together. Her name was—is—Eliza. She's the oldest. She was always a sort of second mother to us. I certainly looked to her as a mother figure, being too young to really remember our real mother. Eliza was kind and gentle and she would play all sorts of games with us, but she'd also make sure we did our lessons and cleaned up the messes we made. She was always there to help with a problem or to hold you if you needed to cry."

"She sounds wonderful," said Nita from the kitchen.

"She was. She still is, though it's been three years now since I've seen her. In any case, she was the one who kept us all in line, especially when Father was away, but we all knew she wasn't really our mother. What's more, we all knew we needed a real mother. Father knew too. That's why, one day, he called us all to his throne room. He was dressed for traveling. He said he was going to search for a wife and he would bring us back a new mother. We were delighted. Eliza promised him we would plan a celebration for when our new mother came. Father left and we spent the next two months planning and working, getting everything ready. We all wanted the new mother to be happy and love us.

"Father came back at last and he did indeed bring a new wife with him. Her name was Daria. She was very beautiful, but something about her cold skin and pale eyes made us uneasy. While we were around Father, she treated us kindly, but the first time we were alone with her we found out that she was not a kind woman at all. She gave us a warning—if we did anything to stop her from gaining what she had come for, we would pay dearly for it. Some of my brothers—Franklin and Peter, the second and third oldest and a pair of hotheads—wanted to challenge her and find out what she really wanted. Victor and Eliza managed to convince them that it wasn't a good idea, that she was dangerous. It was only a matter of time before we found out exactly how dangerous."

Nita emerged from the kitchen carrying two steaming mugs of tea and sat down in the chair across from Morrow. She handed one mug to Morrow, who slipped one hand out from under his cloak to hold it.

"What happened?" she asked. "What did your stepmother do?"

Morrow took a sip of his tea before continuing with his story. "Well, you see, after our new stepmother had been at the palace for three months, strange things started happening. At first it was only small things—food tasting funny at supper, some of us children getting little colds or falling down and getting hurt. Father didn't really think anything of it. We were children, after all, and most of us were boys. We had a reputation for being reckless and wild, running around and roughhousing and playing out in the rain. But then the events worsened. My brother Oliver, who is only a year older than me, and I found a snake in our toy box. It burst out and would have bitten us if Oliver hadn't had the idea to pull the toy box down on it. That knocked it out and gave us time to scream for Victor and Eliza. I'll never forget the look on Victor's face when he saw that snake. I've never seen him so mad. He stomped on the thing with his boot several times before picking it up and then told us that it was a poisonous snake. If it had bitten us, both Oliver and I would have died almost immediately.

"Eliza wanted to tell Father what had happened, but Victor said no. Father was wrapped up in affairs of state, and his new wife had him wrapped around her finger. He would never believe that we hadn't put the snake in the toy box as a joke on our older brothers. We decided to keep a closer watch on our stepmother, and to stick together at all times. It would be harder for her to attack all of us at once, we thought. We didn't realize we were playing right into her hands.

"There were other incidents—heavy objects falling, stairs getting slippery for no reason, sharp items being hidden in our beds. Somehow we always managed to escape without serious injuries, but there were many close calls. Every time something happened, Eliza and Victor argued about whether or not to tell Father. Victor always won.

"All of this happened in the year that I was nine. A year passed and the accidents grew worse. We started getting hurt. Franklin fell down a flight of stairs and broke his arm. Our middle brother, Marcus, fell gravely ill for a time after eating a sweet our stepmother offered him. Our stepmother then offered to treat him, claiming she was good at making potions and medicines. Eliza took a stand against her, luckily, and insisted that the court physician tend Marcus. We kept a close eye on the man and made sure our stepmother did not influence him in any way, and gradually Marcus recovered. Our fifth brother, Jacob, was bitten by one of the hunting dogs and the wound grew infected. Again, Eliza made sure that the court physician tended him and the wound healed.

"By the time I was ten, we were all beginning to fear for our lives. Oliver and I didn't quite understand what was going on, but we knew that it was dangerous and that we could die if it continued. There had been so many close calls—it was only a matter of time before one of us perished. Finally one night Victor and Eliza called us all together and told us that we were going to run away and hide. There was a summer cottage in the woods where we had gone back when our mother was alive. We could go there and hide and we would be fairly safe. Frank and Peter were obstinate—they wanted to stay and fight Daria, but Eliza convinced them that it was foolish. The rest of us asked questions—what should we bring, how long would we be gone, when would we come back. Victor and Eliza tried to answer them as best they could, but they just didn't know some of the answers. At last they told us to pack and be ready to go the next night. It seemed like a good plan. We thought we could get away. We all packed that night, shoving the things we thought we'd need into bags. Then we stowed them under our beds. The plan was for Eliza to come and wake us up just before dawn the next morning so we could run. We went to bed and fell asleep, certain that our plan would work and we would soon be safe.

"The next thing I remember is hearing a sort of chanting and having something tossed over me. Then I was in a lot of pain—it felt as if my bones were reshaping themselves. I tried to scream but the only noise that came out was a sort of honking. By the time I recovered my senses enough to look at my surroundings, I was seeing the world in a whole new way. I heard honking near me and saw five white swans standing around me. I looked down at myself. I had a long neck and was covered in white feathers. My arms were wings, and my feet were webbed. I was a swan too. I tried to cry, but all that came out was more honking.

"I heard a cackle and looked up as far as I could. I found myself looking into the twisted face of my stepmother. She reached out a hand to grab me. Just then I heard another voice cry out. 'Leave them alone!' It was my sister. Eliza, in her nightgown, had burst into the room. Our stepmother turned on her.

" 'What are you doing here, girl?' she snapped. 'And what have you done with my toads?'

" 'Toads?' repeated my sister, staring blankly at our stepmother. She shrugged one shoulder. 'I never saw any toads. What have you done to my brothers?'

"Daria cackled. 'I've turned them into swans,' she said. As she launched into an explanation of how she had done it, Eliza motioned at us with one hand. The largest swan—who must have been Victor—nodded at her and then at the rest of the swans. He moved cautiously toward the window. We followed. We clambered up onto the window seat and Victor unhooked the latch with his beak. Then, slowly and awkwardly, my brothers and I flew out of our bedroom window and into the night, leaving our sister behind with the witch."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Swan Wing**_

_**by: Tiger Lily21**_

_**A/N: Here's the next chapter.

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_**Chapter Two: The Story Continues**_

Morrow paused to sip at his tea again. Nita stared at him unabashedly. "What happened then?" she asked. "What did you do?"

"What could we do but fly away? We couldn't stay in the palace. Our stepmother would probably have had us cooked for supper if we had. Eliza had given us a chance to escape. We had to take it. We flew as far as we could. At last our wings grew tired and we landed on a rocky island in the middle of a lake. We were all hungry and tired, but we had no idea how to get food in these forms. Luckily for us, the sun set shortly after we arrived on the island and we learned the rest of the spell. We regained our human forms as soon as the sun sank below the horizon.

"The first thing most of us did was cry. I wept unabashedly, feeling like a little boy and missing my sister very much. That was the next thing we did—discuss what might have happened to Eliza. We had no idea, and we couldn't go back to look for her. Finally, Victor took charge. He kept the older boys—Frank, Peter, and Marcus—with him to discuss a plan of action and sent the rest of us to look for food on the island. We didn't find much. We hadn't been trained to find our own food, and there wasn't much on the island to begin with. We brought back what we'd found and ate while our older brothers explained what they had decided.

"They thought that the curse would probably reassert itself with the dawn and turn us all back into swans. If it did, we would fly on from here and try to find a better place to land, somewhere with supplies and some sort of shelter. We would try to make a home for ourselves there and then find a way to go back and find Eliza and bring her to live with us. It would not be an ideal existence—we had no idea how to break the curse that had been set upon us. We didn't know if it was even possible to break it. We didn't know how to take care of ourselves very well, we didn't know what had happened to Eliza—and yet we could see no other alternative to the life we were planning.

"The curse did return the next day. As soon as the sun was fully over the horizon, we became swans again. We flew off together, getting used to our new forms. We flew most of the day, searching for a new place to call home. We didn't find much that first day and had to land on another rocky island for the night. The next day we changed again and flew on. Our lives continued like that for some time. I lost track of the days, but the older boys didn't. Over the next few years they made sure to tell us when it was someone's birthday and how old they were. We tried to celebrate, but it never worked very well. And every year on the anniversary of our transformation, we would stop somewhere for the entire day and allow ourselves to mourn for the lives we'd left behind. We mourned for our father and for Eliza. We didn't know what had happened to either of them, and we couldn't go back to look for them until we had a permanent residence of some sort. I missed them both, especially Eliza. I forced myself to keep the memories of her fresh. I knew otherwise I would lose them and forget my sister, and I could not do that.

"After four years of searching, we finally found a place to live. There was a little peninsula on the edge of this country with caves along the seashore and a forest behind them. We could live in the caves and hunt in the forest for food. No one would find us, and it would be close to the sea, so we could fly back to Veldony one day and find Eliza. We took the next year to settle into our new home. During the day we flew out over the country to find out where exactly we were and sometimes to get supplies we needed that we could not hunt for or make ourselves. I'm ashamed to say we stole things sometimes. At night, when we were human, we worked to make our caves into a home. They were never as fine as the palace we had left behind, but they were nice.

"Five years after the transformation, Victor told us that we had to go back to search for Eliza. 'It's been five years,' he said. 'If she escaped from the witch, she'll be looking for us. We have to find her and bring her back to live with us. We can't let her stay in Veldony any longer.' None of us asked him what we would do if Eliza hadn't escaped from the witch. Instead, we listened carefully to his plan and then put it into action.

"We retraced our route across the ocean, taking the time to commit the course to memory. After many days of flight, we arrived back in Veldony. We planned to spread out over the countryside and search individually for Eliza, but as it turned out we did not need to. She was there on the shore when we arrived, just as the sun was setting. She had grown up in the five years since we'd left, as we all had. She was a woman now, and as beautiful as our mother had been, though her face was much sadder than it had been. She cried out when she saw us land on the beach and transform. I was afraid that it was a cry of fear, that she would run away from us, but instead she ran toward us, crying, 'Brothers, oh brothers!'

"The next few moments were a jumble of tears and hugging. Eliza was delighted to see how we had all grown up, and at last we sat down and exchanged stories. It seemed that after we had fled the castle, our stepmother had tried to attack Eliza. She had run away and had been traveling Veldony for five years since then, searching for us. She had nearly given up hope when she saw us land.

"We told her everything that had happened to us, and then Victor explained that we wanted her to come back with us. Eliza agreed immediately and the two of them began planning out how we would do it. It was good to see them planning together again. As long as I could remember Victor and Eliza had been a team. They were only a year apart, as we all were, and had been very close. They stayed up for a long time discussing things. At last Victor went off to sleep. I had stayed up because I wanted to spend time with Eliza. She came over to me and sat down.

" 'Oh Benjamin,' she said. 'You've grown up so much.'

" 'So have you, sister,' I said. 'I've missed you.'

" 'I've missed you too, brother,' she said and kissed my cheek. Though I was sixteen years old, I felt like a little boy again in that moment and wrapped my arms around her. She wrapped hers around me and kissed my cheek again and for the first time in five years, I felt home.

"The next day, Victor and Eliza explained their plan to us. Eliza could not fly, and we were not large enough to carry her on one of our backs, so instead we would make a net and carrying her underneath us. We would rest on the islands we'd found along the way and eventually we would make it back to our caves. For nearly a week we worked on our net, flying into villages to take ropes and then giving them to Eliza, who tied them together into a thick net that she felt could carry her weight. Once it was done, we tested it out, the six of us brothers picking up the empty net and carrying it and then trying it again with Eliza lying in it. At last both Victor and Eliza felt we were ready to begin our journey.

"It took longer to fly back this time, because we had to rest more often. Carrying Eliza in the net meant we tired more easily. We found more islands to land on, and though we had many close calls, we always managed to be on land when our transformation began. At last we made it back to our little peninsula and showed Eliza our caves. We settled in to try to be a family again. But although we now had Eliza with us to take care of us, we knew that it was not the right kind of life to have, transforming between swan and human form every day. We desperately wanted to break the curse, but we had no idea how to do it."

Morrow paused and looked down into his mug of tea, which was growing cold. Nita looked up from her own mug. She could hear the pain in her guest's voice and see it in his eyes when he looked up. She desperately wanted to reassure him. Gently, she reached out a hand and touched his knee. He smiled slightly at her. She smiled back.

"Go on," she said. "What happened next?"

"Nothing happened for a year," said Morrow. "We just lived. But then, one night, Eliza had a dream. She dreamt that an old woman came to her and told her how to break the curse that our stepmother had set upon us. Because our stepmother had used shirts she'd knitted to change us into swans, Eliza would have to use shirts to change us back. They had to be woven of stinging nettles, and for the six years she spent making them, Eliza would have to be absolutely silent. If she spoke even one word before the shirts were done, we would die.

"She explained all of that to us the next morning and then asked us if we wanted her to do it. If she didn't, she said, we would just remain under the curse forever. We had to think. On the one hand, if Eliza could break the spell we would be human again and then, perhaps, we could go back to Veldony and reclaim our places. But on the other hand, we did not want to see our sister suffer. We knew the nettles would hurt her hands, and being silent for six years—how could we ask her to do such a thing? My brothers and I talked it over and at last we decided. We told Eliza that it was up to her. If she wanted to do this to help us, we would do all we could to support her. If she didn't want to, we would not be angry with her. We had lived for years with this curse. We could still live with it if we had to.

"Eliza decided to do it. She began picking nettles, though they stung her hands painfully. While she picked, my brothers and I did what we could for her. We gathered food and supplied. We fashioned baskets for the nettles, a spindle and a pair of knitting needles for her to use. We went with her in swan form while she picked her nettles and kept her company, and did our best to soothe her hands. Eliza kept her silence, not even crying out when the nettles stung her hands.

"Soon she had enough nettles to begin spinning thread. It took her weeks to figure out how to turn the nettles into thread, and even when she figured it out, they still stung her hands as she spun. She spun thread until she ran out of nettles, and then she picked more nettles. At last, after months and months of picking, Eliza thought she had enough thread to begin making shirts. She started knitting.

"By the time a year had passed, Eliza had made one shirt. She had to take a break from knitting then to pick more nettles and spin more thread. Just as she began knitting the second shirt, something none of us expected happened. I only know this because I was told of it later.

"My brothers and I decided to fly to a city to try to find Eliza better supplies for her knitting. The spindle and needles we had made were not the best. We hoped that better supplies would make her work easier. It was really all we could do for her. However, on the day that we left, a hunting party came through the forest and onto the beach. Eliza was in the cave, spinning. The leader of the hunting party, a young prince, rode past the cave and spotted her. Curious, he dismounted and entered the cave. 'Hello,' he said. 'What are you doing here?'

"Eliza couldn't answer him. She shook her head and continued with her work, hoping he would go away. But the prince's curiosity was only heightened by her actions and he stayed where he was. He asked her more questions—what her name was, where she had come from, what she was making. Eliza only continued to shake her head. The prince soon decided that she was mute. He began telling her things instead of asking questions. 'My name is Prince Geoffrey,' he said. Eliza continued knitting. Prince Geoffrey told her about his life in his father's castle, about his dear mother, and about the terrible plague that had swept through the city and killed her. He told her about his new stepmother, who had come from a foreign land and had pale skin and cold eyes. Eliza recognized his description as that of our own stepmother. Had she been able to speak, she would have warned Prince Geoffrey about her, but as it was all she could do was sit and listen to him.

"Prince Geoffrey left at last, but promised to come back to see her again soon. He kept his promise and came again the next day. He greatly enjoyed Eliza's company. He had been very lonely since his mother's death and enjoyed having someone to listen to him. Eliza enjoyed his company as well. She came to like him, and then to love him. Geoffrey fell in love with her as well, and six months after their first meeting, he asked her to marry him.

"Eliza was hesitant. She loved Geoffrey, and she wanted to marry him, but she knew that my brothers and I would be returning soon and that we would panic if we came back and found her gone. Plus, she had four and a half years left in her vow of silence, and she knew she would run out of nettles eventually and have to pick more. She doubted there would be nettles at the palace. However, her love for Geoffrey soon won out. She went with him, bringing her nettles, the thread she had spun, and the shirts with her."


	3. Chapter 3

_**Swan Wing**_

_**by: Tiger Lily21

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_**Chapter Three: The Story Ends**_

Morrow drank the rest of his tea and bent to set the mug down on the floor. Nita watched him in fascination. "What happened next?" she asked.

"My brothers and I returned to find Eliza gone," said Morrow, "and as she had suspected, we were terrified. It took us several days to figure out what had happened, and even then we did not know all the details. We only knew that a man had come and taken our sister away. We began searching the country for her every day, flying far and wide. Nearly a year passed before we tracked her down. By then she had married Prince Geoffrey and become pregnant with his child. We saw that she was happy, and that she was still working on the shirts and keeping to her vow of silence, and so we decided to leave her alone. When the shirts were done, she would come and find us, we were sure. After all the pain she was going through to break the curse, we thought she deserved some happiness.

"We all waited eagerly for the news of Eliza's baby. We would not be able to visit our niece or nephew when the child was born, we knew, but we hoped we would be able to be a part of its life when the spell was broken. At last the day came. An announcement was made to the entire kingdom: the prince's strange, mute bride had given birth to a beautiful boy child. He was named Alexander, after Geoffrey's father. Curious, we brothers all took turns flying by the nursery window to see our new nephew. He truly was a beautiful child, and Eliza was radiant with joy. We were glad to see her so happy, and each of us dreamed of holding little Alexander one day and getting to know him. Alas, our joy was short-lived.

"My brothers and I took turns watching Eliza and Alexander to make sure they were all right. There was always at least one of us around the palace at all times, whether in human or swan form. One night it was my turn to stand watch. I stood outside the nursery window on the ground floor and watched Alexander sleep peacefully in his cradle. Then, as I watched, a dark shape crept into the room and picked up the baby. At first I thought it was Eliza, but then the figure turned its face toward the window and I recognized the cold eyes of my stepmother. She did not see me, and turned away again, carrying my nephew out of the room.

"Angrily, I broke the window and clambered through. I ran after the witch but could not catch her. I followed her all the way to the outskirts of the city. There she set little Alexander down on the dirt and left him. I waited until I was sure she was gone, and then bent down and picked up my nephew. He looked up at me with frightened eyes and I held him close. 'I'll take care of you,' I told him. 'I can't bring you back to your mother—they'll know something happened when they see the window. But I'll take you back to live with me until it's safe. I'm your Uncle Benjamin. Your other uncles and I will care for you. Come on now. We have to hurry. Once the sun comes up, I won't have arms to carry you.' With that, I sprinted back through the city, hoping to beat the dawn.

"I barely made it back to the place where my brothers were before I transformed into a swan. I managed to set Alexander down before it happened. Then I had to explain to my brothers why I had brought our nephew home. It was difficult—swans don't speak English, and they don't understand certain things. Still, I managed to get the message across and convince them that we had to care for him. We couldn't do anything that day. I felt so bad—we had no way to feed him or change him or comfort him. When he soiled himself the first time, we just pulled on the diaper with our beaks until it came off and then let him go around without one for the rest of the day. As soon as night fell, we cleaned him up, found him some milk to drink, and tried our best to care for him. We made plans for how to care for him during the day. Looking back, we were completely inept, but somehow we managed.

"Meanwhile, Eliza had discovered that Alexander was gone. The broken window convinced Geoffrey that a thief must have broken in and stolen the baby from the outside. He sent search parties out and set a reward for the return of Alexander, but nothing worked. The witch suggested that Eliza had done away with him, that she was a witch and had eaten her own child. Both Eliza and Geoffrey were horrified at her accusation, but of course Eliza could not defend herself. She sat in the nursery every day and knitted, weeping silently. Four of the six shirts were done. Two years remained in her vow of silence.

"The sorrow passed slowly. A year came and went, and Eliza had another child: a girl this time. They named her Isabella. Eliza never let her out of her sight. She stayed in the nursery constantly and tried not to sleep for fear that Isabella would be taken from her as well. However, she grew so tired that one night she fell asleep. Marcus was watching her that night. He spotted the witch sneaking into the room and stealing the baby from the cradle. He could not break the window as I had; he did not want to wake Eliza. Instead, he ran to the place where the witch had left Alexander and hid there. The witch came and laid Isabella on the ground. Once she was gone, Marcus went and picked up our niece and raced the dawn back to our dwelling.

"We had learned from our experience raising Alexander in the past year and so it was easier to care for Isabella. The siblings grew used to seeing us change back and forth between forms and they were two of the pleasantest babies I've ever met. But while we raised Eliza's children, Eliza was being accused for being a witch again. With no evidence of a thief from the outside this time, Geoffrey was more willing to listen to his stepmother's wicked lies. Even worse, six months after Isabella disappeared, Eliza ran out of nettles. She had to go out and pick more. The only place they grew around the palace was the royal cemetery, so that was where she went. She didn't realize that the witch had convinced Geoffrey to follow her. When he saw where his wife was and what she was doing, Geoffrey became convinced. She was a witch, and therefore she had to die.

"Geoffrey had her thrown into the dungeon to await punishment. Eliza took her knitting with her, working frantically to finish the last shirt. She knitted and knitted. We watched her, but we had no opportunity to free her while she was in the castle. We planned to wait until she went to trial and then swoop down and snatch her to safety. However, the wicked witch convinced Geoffrey that Eliza did not need a trial, that it was clear she was a witch and so she must be burned along with her cursed nettle shirts. On the evening of the last day before the sixth anniversary of Eliza's vow, she was taken from the dungeon under a heavy guard. She was allowed to bring the nettle shirts because they were to be burned along with her. All the way to the outskirts of town, where she was to be burned, Eliza knitted frantically, trying to finish the last sleeve of the last shirt. She did not finish it before they tied her to the stake and piled the wood around her. They allowed her to hold the shirts. The witch herself held the torch to light the fire. It was then that we brothers swooped down to save our sister.

"We had brought the net with us and planned to throw it over her and pick her up and carry her away. Instead, Eliza threw the shirts—including the unfinished one—up into the air at us. We realized what was happening and flew toward them. I'm still not sure if we flew into the shirts or if they flew at us, but somehow they went over us and the next thing I knew we were all on the ground, human, and Eliza was screaming.

" 'I'm not a witch!' she screamed. 'I'm not a witch! I don't know what happened to the children. I haven't been able to speak for six years, because I had to save my brothers.' She turned to look at us. 'Oh brothers, you're human again!'

"We all nodded, and then spoke up in Eliza's defense. We took turns telling the whole story. Geoffrey ordered Eliza released. The children, whom we had hidden nearby, were brought out and their parents covered them with kisses. In the midst of this, the witch snuck away. Geoffrey sent the guards after her and the rest of us went back to the palace. It wasn't until we reached it and calmed down that I realized what had happened."


	4. Chapter 4

_**Swan Wing**_

_**by: Tiger Lily21

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_**Chapter Four: The Next Step**_

"What?" Nita asked, eying his cloak. She had an idea now of where he was going, but did not want to voice a guess. He would reveal it soon, she was sure.

Morrow frowned. "Somehow, I got the unfinished shirt, the one missing a sleeve. Most of my body transformed back into a human's permanently, but because there was a sleeve missing—"

Morrow used one hand to untie his cloak at last. It fell from his shoulders. One shoulder was normal, but as Nita watched, the other changed from a human shoulder into a swan's snowy white wing. She looked out the window. Sure enough, it was dawn. She looked back at Morrow. "Your arm is still cursed, isn't it?" she asked.

Morrow nodded. "I've searched for three years for a cure," he said, "but I haven't been able to find one. Eliza finished the nettle sleeve, but it didn't work because she had spoken before she finished it. There was no magic in it. She took another vow of silence for six months and made another sleeve during that time, but it didn't work either. Finally I left to find some other way to change it back permanently. I was told that you would be able to help me."

Nita frowned. "Who told you that?" she asked, a hint of fear in her voice. "I'm no magic worker, just a simple healer."

"You don't need to be a magic worker," said Morrow. "I didn't come to you expecting magic, Miss Elwyn. I came because I heard great things of your reputation as a kind and gentle person, the sort who loves others and helps them as much as she can. From what I have seen of you tonight, I believe that I was told truthfully. That is all the magic you need, if you will agree to help me."

Nita looked into his eyes for several minutes without saying a word. "Very well," she said at last, looking down again. "I will try to help you. I just don't know what to do. Let me think about it and I'll get back to you soon."

"Thank you," said Morrow, standing up and deftly putting on his cloak with one hand. Nita supposed he'd had plenty of practice. "I'll come back tomorrow, then."

He started for the door. Nita thought for a moment, and then said, "No, wait! Where are you staying?"  
"I planned to go to the inn," said Morrow. "Why?"

Nita stood and twisted her hands together, looking shyly down at the floor. "I was hoping you would stay here instead," she said. "It would be easier for you, I think—no one would accidentally see your wing, and I could observe you and perhaps get a better idea of what to do to help you. I have a guest room, and I could use an assistant in my work. Would you be willing to stay here and work with me until I can heal you? You can consider it payment, if you like."

Morrow smiled broadly at her and removed his cloak. "Thank you, Miss Elwyn," he said. "That's very kind of you. I will gladly stay with you. To tell you the truth, I have not had a home or a profession since I left to seek a cure. I renounced my royal title—no one wants a prince with a swan's wing, and I was the youngest so it's not as if I would ever inherit the throne—and I've just been a wanderer ever since. I will do my best to assist you in your work."

Nita smiled back at him. "Come on then," she said. "I'll show you the guest room. We ought to get a few hours of sleep before my—I mean our—customers start coming." She led the way through the kitchen and into a narrow corridor with three doors along it. She opened the first door, revealing a small but tidy bedroom. "This will be your room, Mr. Morrow," she said.

"Thank you," said Morrow. He walked halfway into the room, then turned and looked at her again. "Incidentally, if we're to work together, I think we ought to be on first name terms. Please call me Benjamin."

"In that case, call me Nita," said Nita, smiling.

"Sleep well, Nita," said Benjamin.

"Sleep well, Benjamin," she replied, and with a final smile she walked away to the third room on the corridor. She walked into her own room and lay down on her bed. _What on earth have I gotten myself into?_ she wondered. She didn't have time to answer the question before sleep overtook her.

***

Nita dreamt of swans, of whirling white feathers and of running into someone's arms. She woke feeling confused, as if she had missed something. She was certain that there had been a clue in the dream if only she could have found it. She rose and dressed, then went to the kitchen to begin making breakfast.

Benjamin came into the kitchen. He had washed and combed his hair and pulled it back out of his face. He was still wearing his clothes from the day before, but he had not yet put on the cloak. His white swan wing hung at his side. He smiled slightly at Nita. "Good morning," he said.

"Good morning," she said. "I hope you slept well?"

"Yes," said Benjamin, smiling. "Your guest room bed is very comfortable, and the food smells delicious."

"Thank you," said Nita. "Sit down. It'll be ready in a moment." She gestured at the table with the hand that wasn't stirring the eggs.

Benjamin sat down, being careful not to bump anything with his wing. Nita finished cooking the eggs and divided them onto two plates. She brought them over to the table, along with a few pieces of toast, and sat down next to Benjamin. She pushed one of the plates over to him.

"Normally no one comes to see me until around ten o'clock, so we have an hour or two. After breakfast I'd like to examine your wing a bit more closely—perhaps I can figure out something from that. I'll also show you a bit about how I do my healing, and then when people start coming you can stay in the supply room."

"That sounds fine," said Benjamin, using his toast to scoop up some eggs.

Nita watched him eat. He seemed to have accustomed himself quite well to having the use of only one arm. Once he finished and she had put the dishes in the sink, she led him back to the room between the guest room and her own bedroom, which served as her supply room. It was cool inside, and lined with shelves. The shelves held a variety of jars and bowls. Dried herbs and flowers hung from the ceiling, filling the room with their various scents. There was a table and a chair in the center of the room. Nita had Benjamin sit in the chair while she examined him.

She did not know exactly what she had expected the wing to feel like—perhaps like an arm covered in feathers? It did not feel like that at all. She touched it carefully and felt the bones in it. It was structured like a bird's wing. It was as long as Benjamin's other arm, and, when she had him stand up and flap it, quite powerful. It struck up a small wind in the supply room, blowing the dried herbs and flowers around on the ceiling and whipping at Nita's skirts. It was amazing…and she had absolutely no idea how to change it from a wing into an arm.

"Does it change only when the light of the sun hits it?" she asked. "Or will it change no matter what?"

"I'm not sure," said Benjamin. "I've always been in a place where the sunlight could hit it when the time came for the change."

"Perhaps we can try something tonight then," said Nita. "The guest room doesn't have a window—maybe it won't change if you're in there. We'll wait for it to change back tonight, and then you can stay in the room until the sun comes up and we'll see what happens."

"I suppose it's worth a try," said Benjamin just as they heard a knock on the front door.

"Oh dear," said Nita, hurrying out of the supply room. "I'd better go see who that is. Stay here. I'll come back soon."

As it turned out, the person at the door was Michael, the butcher's son. He had a small cut on his finger from a knife that had slipped. Nita went back to the supply room to collect herbs and bandages, then returned to Michael to clean and bandage the cut. He thanked her, paid, and left. Nita returned to the supply room again.

She spent about half an hour teaching Benjamin some basics of healing before someone else came to her door. It was Mary Smith and her little daughter Anna. The child had a cold. Nita mixed up a tonic to stop her coughing and sniffles, and told Mary to keep her in bed. Mary thanked her, paid, and left. Nita returned to Benjamin and continued his lesson.

The rest of the day went somewhat like that. Nita would teach Benjamin about healing until they heard a knock on the door, and then she would go out to meet the customer. She'd return to the supply room for the things she needed and then to continue the lessons. Benjamin was a fast learner. By the end of the day, he was able to identify and hand her some of the things she needed when she came in to make up cures for her customers.

As the day went on, Nita kept an eye on the sun. When she noticed it going down, she called Benjamin out of the supply room. The light from the sunset hit his wing and it changed back into a human arm. Nita watched closely, but she could not tell how it changed. She did see the look of pain on Benjamin's face and wondered if the transformation hurt.

Nita prepared a simple supper for Benjamin and herself. They ate and then went back to the supply room to continue their lessons for a while longer. At last Nita suggested they both go to bed. "I'll come in and see you tomorrow morning," she told Benjamin. "Don't come out of your room until I tell you."

He nodded and bid her good night, then went into the guest room and closed the door. Nita went to her own room and soon fell asleep, dreaming again of swans. She still had no idea what any of it meant, and when she woke up in the morning, she could only remember snatches of the dreams.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Swan Wing**_

_**by: Tiger Lily21**_

_**A/N: This is where it gets crappy, mostly because I wrote it at 5 in the morning instead of sleeping. I don't like the ending at all. Let me know what you think.**_

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_**Chapter Five: The Solution**_

As soon as she was dressed, Nita went to Benjamin's room. She opened the door carefully so that the sunlight from the front room could not drift in. She found Benjamin sitting on the bed, cradling his white swan wing in his other arm. He looked up when he heard her come in. His gaze was melancholy.

"It didn't work," he said. "It transformed back. It doesn't matter if the sun hits it—it just happens."

Nita sat down next to him on the bed. "Well, that's something to go on, at least," she said. "We can try other experiments. I'll find some way to make it human permanently. I promised, didn't I? Come on, now. We should eat something before the day really begins." She smiled at him. Benjamin managed a hint of a smile in return and followed her out of his room and into the kitchen.

From there the day proceeded as the day before had. Nita taught Benjamin more about healing until a customer arrived for her, and then she came back to him to gather supplies and to teach him more. His melancholy mood did not entirely dissipate by the end of the day, but he didn't look quite as sad by the time that the sun set. Nita kept him in the supply room for that transformation and watched as, even without the sunlight hitting it, his wing changed back into an arm. They had dinner and continued the lessons until it was time for bed.

In the weeks that followed, Nita and Benjamin fell into a routine. She began to grow used to having him around. He was an excellent helper, and even began putting together the herbs he thought she'd need without her direction. She still could not figure out anything to do about his wing, which changed from wing to arm at sunset and back again at sunrise every day. She tried everything she could think of to keep it from changing back into a wing. She soaked his arm in herbs and wrapped it in bandages, but in the morning it was still a wing. She consulted books and even thought about writing to her old mistress to find out if she knew anything about breaking curses. Nothing worked. Nita saw the gloom grow in Benjamin's eyes as the days wore on, and she wished she could do something to help him, even if it was only temporary. She was growing quite fond of him.

The day came when Benjamin had been living with Nita for a year and still she had turned up nothing to help him. That night, he packed up his few belongings and set them by the front door.

"I should move on," he said. "Thank you for trying, but it is obvious that even you can do nothing. I will keep going. Someone else is bound to know something."

Nita felt tears sting her eyes. "No, please don't go," she said. "I'll figure out something."

"I'm sorry," he said, "but it's been a year. I just don't think you can do any more. I'll leave in the morning. Good night."

"Good night," said Nita. She went back to her room, buried her face in her pillow, and cried.

Benjamin was gone the next morning when she got up. She cried again, ignoring the tears that fell into the eggs. The rest of the day she was distracted. She kept expecting to see Benjamin in the supply room when she went back to fetch something, or to hear his voice. She caught herself speaking to him several times before realizing that he wasn't there. She cried herself to sleep again that night, and many nights afterwards. She took a pillow from the guest room bed and slept with it in her bed because it had his scent on it. She prayed for Benjamin to come back, but he never did.

Sometime shortly after she took the pillow from the guest room, Nita realized that she was in love with Benjamin Morrow. She could not stop thinking about him. The townspeople began whispering about her, wondering if she was becoming ill and why she didn't just do something to cure herself. Nita didn't tell any of the people who asked that there was no known cure for heartbreak. She simply told them that she was fine, and felt bad for lying.

A year passed. The scent on the guest room pillow faded and Nita put it back and brought in the blanket instead. She slept under it and drank in his scent and pretended that he was with her. But it was not enough. She decided that the only way she could be happy was to find him again, and the only way she would do that was if she found a cure for him. When she was not healing others, she was writing letters to her old mistress, and then to other people that her mistress pointed her to, asking about how to break transformational curses. She ordered thick books from distant libraries and stayed up late reading them. Nothing. Still she worked like a woman possessed. She branched out from healing books into books of legends. After all, this had to do with magic, and magic didn't always follow the rules of healing.

At last, after nearly two years had passed since Benjamin's departure, Nita found something. There was an old story in a book about a maiden who was changed into a swan by a wicked sorcerer. In order to save her, a man had to find her and prove his love to her. The man who finally broke the curse was her childhood friend. He searched for her until he found her, and then he swept her into his arms and kissed her, and the spell broke. There was another story about a prince who became a frog and turned back when a princess kissed him, and one where a monster was turned back into a prince by a woman's kiss. After reading all those stories, Nita came to a decision.

Supposing that Benjamin's spell was like the ones in the stories—it might not have been at first, but perhaps it had changed when he'd put on the incomplete shirt—then true love's kiss could break it. Resolved to find him again and to kiss him when she did, Nita packed her things. She explained to the townspeople that she had to leave, and then with a pack on her back, she left town.

She had no idea where he had gone when he'd left her, but he'd come to her from the north and he would not return there, so she headed south. She stopped in every town she came to and asked about a man who had worn a cloak and who might have gone to a healer. No one could tell her anything. Men in cloaks were seen all the time, but when she gave more detailed descriptions, they never turned up anything. She traveled until she reached the coast, then continued east. She would travel the entire country if she had to, if it meant that she could find him. _If this is not proving my love for him_, she thought, _I'm not sure what is. _

One night, six months after she had left home, Nita came to a town where a cloaked man had been only the night before. He had gone on, the people said, but only that afternoon. He could not be too far away yet. Nita did not stay in that town that night. She pressed on through the night. She did not reach another town before she grew too tired to go another step. Exhausted, she lay down on the side of the road and fell asleep.

She opened her eyes to the sound of footsteps on the road. A man with scraggly hair and an enormous cloak covering his body stood in the middle of the road, staring unabashedly at her. She stared back for a moment and then she launched herself at him.

"Benjamin!" she cried.

"Nita?"

She nearly flew to him and kissed him as hard as she could. She felt one of his arms wrap around her and then, after a moment, the other wrapped around her as well. She broke away from him to look at the sun. It was rising. And yet Benjamin was holding her in both his arms—his human arms—and he was looking down at her with a mixture of awe and love in his eyes.

"Nita, you did it," he said. "You did it!"

She beamed at him. "I promised you I would heal you," she said. "I just never imagined it would take so much to do it." She laughed. "But I would have done it all and more if I had to. I love you."

"I love you too," he said. "I didn't realize it until I'd left, though, and then I was too ashamed to go back. I didn't want you to have to be with a man with only one arm. I thought I'd find a cure on my own and then go back to you when I was whole."

"You're an idiot," she said affectionately. "No one could have healed you except me. It was love that did it. If you'd only stayed I would have kissed you eventually and I wouldn't have had to chase after you like this."

He laughed and kissed her again before she could say another word.

They went back to Nita's village after that. Along the way, Nita shared the story of what she'd done in their time apart, and Benjamin shared his own travel stories. They were married the day they returned to the village, and she introduced Benjamin to the town as her partner in healing.

Benjamin's siblings came to visit them eventually. His brothers had married noblewomen. Queen Eliza and her husband King Geoffrey brought their children, who were quite grown up by then. King Victor brought his own wife, Lydia, all the way from Veldony. All of them tried to convince Benjamin to take up a title again, but he told them he was happy as a healer. Nita was secretly glad of that—she did not think she would have done well as a nobleman's wife, let alone as the wife of a prince.

Time went on and Nita and Benjamin had their own children. When they were old enough, they told them the story of the swan curse, and of how Benjamin had finally been freed of it. Their children passed it on to their own children, and they to theirs, and so, at least in the medium of story, Benjamin and Nita lived happily ever after.


End file.
